Jury acquits Pittsburgh man of homicide in Banksville Road confrontation

An Allegheny County jury Friday swiftly acquitted a Pittsburgh man on trial for fatally shooting an unarmed man with whom he had been feuding during a confrontation at a busy city intersection.

Connor Makstutis, 25, of Beechview was found not guilty of criminal homicide in the death of Richard Derkach, 34, of Pittsburgh on March 13, 2023.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours before issuing its verdict.

Makstutis, who has been on house arrest for more than two years, hugged his lawyer, Lee Rothman as his family members expressed relief and joy in the gallery.

“We’re just grateful that 12 citizens were able to follow the law and understand that my client had no choice but to protect himself,” Rothman said.

Rothman had told jurors the shooting was justified and asked them to find his client acted in self-defense.

Prosecutors sought a conviction for either third-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

Over the 10 months leading up to the incident, Rothman said, Derkach had threatened Makstutis, fired a gun at his mother’s house and chased him — including in the moments leading up to the fatal shooting.

“Whether Richard Derkach had a weapon or not doesn’t matter. It’s whether it was reasonable for my client to believe he did,” Rothman said in his closing argument on Friday in Common Pleas court. “Mr. Derkach wanted to create fear in my client he was going to kill him.

“He succeeded.”

But Assistant District Attorney Matthew Newman countered in his own closing, the defense was wrong on the law.

“It has to be reasonable. What’s not reasonable?” Newman asked. “Shooting an unarmed man — even if you have a history — which, conveniently, was never reported.”

The shooting

According to investigators, Makstutis was stopped at a red light on Brookline Boulevard at Crane Avenue in the city’s Brookline neighborhood around 4:48 p.m. when Derkach, driving a dark-colored minivan, pulled up behind him.

Video taken from cameras at the scene show Derkach exit his car and walk to Makstutis’ driver’s side window. At the same time, Derkach’s brother exited the passenger side of the van and stood there.

Within seconds, Derkach, who clearly did not have anything in his hands, could be seen flinching.

That’s when police said, Makstutis shot him three times. Derkach ran back to his car and drove away, only to stop after about 100 yards.

He died a short time later.

Makstutis also drove away, heading straight to Pittsburgh police headquarters on the North Side where he turned himself in.

During the trial, the defense presented evidence of the history between Derkach and Makstutis, including showing videos, taken by Derkach, of him chasing Makstutis twice in their vehicles.

Makstutis, who testified on Thursday, said it was after one of those incidents on Thanksgiving night in 2022, that he went out the next day and bought a gun for protection.

He obtained a permit to carry a concealed weapon less than a month later.

Fearing for his life

During his closing argument, Rothman was critical of the police investigation, saying detectives investigated only the shooting and spoke only to the people who witnessed it.

“That was the end of their investigation,” Rothman said. “They didn’t do anything else.”

Detectives did not investigate the previous threats and harassment by Derkach, Rothman said, and they did not pull video from city cameras showing the chase that precipitated the shooting.

“It started a mile-and-a-half back,” Rothman said.

He also criticized the prosecution for failing to present Derkach’s brother to testify at trial.

For much of his closing, Rothman spoke about justification, citing Pennsylvania’s Castle Doctrine.

That law says a person who uses deadly force to defend themselves in their home or vehicle is “presumed to have a reasonable belief that deadly force is immediately necessary.”

That applied to Makstutis, Rothman said.

The afternoon of the shooting, the defense attorney recounted, Makstutis had just left his mother’s house when Derkach and Derkach’s brother began following him.

Although Makstutis tried to lose them — running a stop sign and turning down an alley — he could not, Rothman said.

Derkach kept trying to force his client into a Jersey barrier on Brookline Boulevard, and he feared for his life, Rothman said.

“He felt like they were going to ‘jack him — carjack him,” Rothman told the jury. “You must presume his belief and fear were real.”

He told the jury that his client tried to drive away but was forced to stop at the red light. Rothman urged jurors to rewatch the video from the shooting.

“He tries to pull forward. He tries to leave,” Rothman said. “But he couldn’t. He feels trapped. My client did everything right, and they want you to convict him of murder.”

Castle Doctrine

But Newman, the prosecutor, said Makstutis could have driven away as Derkach approached him that day but chose not to.

Addressing the Castle Doctrine, the prosecutor called Rothman’s interpretation of it “ridiculous.”

Otherwise, Newman said, everyone who feels road rage would be permitted to shoot and kill the offending driver.

“That’s not how the law works,” Newman said.

As for the history between Makstutis and Derkach, the prosecutor told the jury that no one heard anything about it until the defendant put on his case on Thursday — 2½ years later.

Newman noted repeatedly that Makstutis failed to report any of the previous incidents to police.

Instead, the prosecutor said, gripping the .9 mm-caliber pistol used to kill Derkach as he walked before the jury box, Makstutis took matters into his own hands.

“He went out and got all the help he needed,” Newman said.